This planned motion-capture feature film adaptation of the book by Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) will be directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House, City of Ember) and scripted by Ann Peacock (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) for Disney and producer Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers. The fantasy adventure tells the story of a boy who lives on an island off the coast of Ireland. His father is the king's bodyguard, and when the king is murdered the boy is blamed and put in prison. There he designs a flying machine which he plans to use to save his family.

Alice in Wonderland

Director Tim Burton re-teams with his frequent leading man Johnny Depp for this upcoming 3D retelling of Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, which marks Burton's first performance-capture movie. Depp plays the Mad Hatter opposite newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice. In this version, Alice is a 19-year-old who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen's reign of terror. In addition to Depp and Wasikowska, the all-star cast also includes Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, and Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Christopher Lee is the Jabberwock, Timothy Spall plays the Bloodhound, and Crispin Glover portrays the Knave of Hearts. Burton's frequent collaborator Danny Elfman is composing the score.

After Disney unceremoniously dumped the Narnia franchise following the tepid box office performance of Prince Caspian, Fox picked up the franchise and retained the key creative personnel (including director Michael Apted and stars Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Ben Barnes, Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan, and Eddie Izzard as the voice of Reepicheep) already attached to the screen adaptation of the third novel in C.S. Lewis's literary series. Son of Rambow's Will Poulter won the key role of Eustace Clarence Scrubb. Fox also reportedly shaved the film's budget down by roughly $60 million. Dawn Treader finally began filming in Australia this past July and is expected to wrap in November. Dawn Treader is slated for release stateside December 10, 2010.

The last we heard, Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) was set to direct the film based on the fantasy novel of the same name by Terry Brooks. Elfstones is actually the second book in the series, following The Sword of Shannara, and goes deeper into the history of the Elves first introduced in book one. This particular adventure follows a young pair, Wil Ohmsford and Amberle Elessedil, on a quest to restore a magical tree that maintains the balance between good and evil. According to the author's official Web site, Warner Bros. has the rights to the film until 2010, and has bought a script by fantasy writer and long-time Brooks fan Eldon Thompson, though that will likely serve merely as just a starting point. Nothing further has come out about this project, so we suspect it may be stuck in development "Forbidding" (the book's version of a demonic realm) for the time being.

Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way is developing a Gothic re-imagining of the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood. David Leslie Johnson (Orphan) is writing the script and Twilight's Catherine Hardwicke is attached to direct. The project isn't being developed as an acting vehicle for DiCaprio. Early versions of Little Red Riding Hood were far darker than the popular Brothers Grimm version, with the wolf being a werewolf who actually eats Little Red Riding Hood.